Asians are monolithically categorized under one broad racial label despite their diverse compositions (e.g., with national origins from South, East, Southeast, or West Asia). Some Asian subgroups are perceived to be more prototypically Asian than others and cultural contexts may further shape such perception. With historically longstanding presence of East Asians in the United States and South Asians in the United Kingdom, we theorized that the perceived prototypicality of different Asian subgroups in the two countries would reflect these respective historical saliencies. Three studies (N = 849) examined how (non-Asian) Americans and Britons perceived different Asian subgroups in terms of how prototypically Asian and how foreign they seem. Studies 1 and 2 found that compared to British participants, Americans perceived East and Southeast Asians as more prototypically Asian; Britons considered South Asians as more prototypically Asian than American participants. Study 3 showed that Americans perceived East and Southeast Asians to be less foreign and more prototypically American than South and West Asians; in contrast, Britons perceived South Asians to be less foreign and more prototypically British than all other Asian subgroups. This research demonstrates the importance of disaggregating Asian subgroups and contextualizing prototype theories within sociohistorical frameworks.

尽管亚洲人的构成多种多样（例如，民族起源于南亚、东亚、东南亚或西亚），但他们仍被单一地归类为一个广泛的种族标签。一些亚洲亚群被认为比其他亚群更具有典型的亚洲特征，而文化背景可能会进一步影响这种看法。鉴于历史上东亚人在美国和南亚人在英国的长期存在，我们从理论上认为，两国不同亚洲亚群的感知原型将反映这些各自的历史显着性。三项研究（N = 849) 研究了（非亚裔）美国人和英国人如何看待不同的亚裔亚群，这些亚群是典型的亚裔和外来者。研究 1 和 2 发现，与英国参与者相比，美国人认为东亚和东南亚人更像亚洲人；英国人认为南亚人比美国参与者更典型的亚洲人。研究 3 表明，与南亚和西亚人相比，美国人认为东亚和东南亚人不那么陌生，更具有典型的美国特色；相比之下，英国人认为南亚人比所有其他亚洲亚群都更少外来和更典型的英国人。这项研究证明了在社会历史框架内分解亚洲亚群和背景化原型理论的重要性。